Is ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ The Best Superhero Movie of the Year?

Is ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ The Best Superhero Movie of the Year?
Jeff Labrecque — Entertainment Weekly

The Avengers might have a new nemesis: mutants.

Hollywood politics will likely keep Marvel’s two most-populated superhero franchises on different movie screens for the foreseeable future, but the critics are poised to put Fox’s X-Men on the same pedestal as the Avengers following Days of Future Past. Bryan Singer’s new movie, based on a 1981 comic book that involves time travel and mutant-killing Sentinels, unites the original “present-day” X-Men with their younger selves, introduced in Matthew Vaughn’s stylish 2011 prequel, First Class.

An embarrassment of casting riches unites when Hugh…

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‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Spoiler FAQ

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Spoiler FAQ
Rob Bricken — io9

What is The Amazing Spider-Man 2 about?

It’s about a man gifted with extraordinary powers who, through hard work and perseverance, finally manages to get his girlfriend killed.

This is awesome and you should click through and read every. single. word!

A couple more samples:

Okay… but that’s good, right?

Well, yes and no. Yes because Harry has access to all his father’s crazy secret projects — which, by the way, is literally in a folder titled “Secret Projects” — and no because that neurogenetic disease that his father succumbed to at the age of 50-something decides this is the week to…

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‘Agents of SHIELD’ Renewed for a Second Season

‘Agents of SHIELD’ Renewed for a Second Season
Marvel.com

In breaking news, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” has been renewed by ABC for a second season to begin in Fall 2014 while “Marvel’s Agent Carter” has been picked up to series to debut on ABC.

Yay! This of course makes me very happy. And I’ll certainly be interested to find out what Agent Carter will be about and if it will be any good.

Fun times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

“‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ And Its Self-Sabotaging Gwen Stacy Plot Twist”

“‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ And Its Self-Sabotaging Gwen Stacy Plot Twist”
Scott Mendelson — Forbes

WARNING — SPOILERS for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 follow.

The phrase “woman in refrigerator”, coined by future comic book writer Gail Simone 1999, referred to the tendency of comic books to do harm upon the girlfriends, wives, or female siblings of a male hero for the sole purpose of making the hero feel bad and/or seek vengeance. It was named after an incident in a 1994 Green Lantern comic where Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend was murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator. It soon became the de-facto phrase for the pattern in comic books by which the female supporting character in a male-centric title…

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Honest Trailer — ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones’

Honest Trailer — ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones’

“Come on JJ, there’s no way you can do worse than this!”

“...a man forced to act opposite lifeless CGI characters like Hayden Christensen.”

This is hilarious. And, let’s face it, while Attack of the Clones was a way better film than The Phantom Menace, it still only makes it to like a 2.5 out of 5 stars on my own scale. And every one of the criticisms in this trailer hit way to close to home. Hayden Christensen really can’t act — or at least, he didn’t in the Star Wars series. Natalie Portman can act, but the dialog she was forced to say in these films was beyond bad. And it’s hard to act…

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The Talented Bob Hoskins Acting on Blue Screen for ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’

The Talented Bob Hoskins Acting on Blue Screen for ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’

While it’s not entirely out of the ordinary for someone to pass away at the age of 70, it can still be a pretty sad event and my sympathies go out to his family. We have indeed lost a great actor.

If you want to see just how great we’re talking about here, this video of him acting at a sequence from Who Framed Roger Rabbit with nothing but blue screen around him should give you a pretty good idea of what he was capable of. I just don’t know how he did it.

“Dear Marvel, Please Start Caring About Your Soundtracks”

“Dear Marvel, Please Start Caring About Your Soundtracks”
David R — Unreality

Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s musical score is just flat-out bad. I’m sure you could justify the thought process behind its design, but there’s nothing original about it, and most of the cues range from boring to — literally — physically uncomfortable.

The carry-over from the last movie, or even from The Avengers, was minimal. Cap’s theme was conspicuously absent, and one would think that Falcon, S.H.I.E.L.D., Black Widow, or SOMEBODY present in the movie deserved a recognizable motif or musical signature.

Admittedly, I noticed a vague attempt at giving the Winter Soldier himself a…

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‘Captain America’ Succeeds Where ‘Man of Steel’ Failed

‘Captain America’ Succeeds Where ‘Man of Steel’ Failed
Mike Ryan — Screen Crush

Admittedly, I never felt too outraged over the ending of last summer’s ‘Man of Steel.’ (Yes, there will be major spoilers ahead.) The complaints over Superman breaking the neck of his foe were certainly valid – therefore changing the very definition of the character – but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film. That changed after seeing ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier.’

There’s no way this happened except by total coincidence – the script for ‘The Winter Soldier’ was started two years before ‘Man of Steel’ hit theaters – but the endings of both films offer a striking parallel to…

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Coulson And Co. Are About to Have A Very Bad Day — ‘Agents of SHIELD’

Coulson And Co. Are About to Have A Very Bad Day — ‘Agents of SHIELD’

So if you’ve been paying any attention to Agents of SHIELD (and if you haven’t, WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?), you know that they have been gearing up for a seismic shift. In the last episode, you definitely got a glimpse and taste of things to come in this week’s episode. Allegiances were tested and broken, and weird things happened.

Well, after watching The Winter Soldier, I think it’s clear that what we saw in the last episode was nothing. Coulson and Co. are about to have a really, really bad day (and I am going to be slightly disappointed if a certain high-raking…

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‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ End Credits Breakdowns

‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ End Credits Breakdowns
Joanna Robinson — Vanity Fair

This article breaks down the significance of the two end of credits scenes for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If you haven’t seen the film yet and don’t want to be spoiled, now would be a good time to leave. Also, that’s right, we said two. You didn’t just up and leave after that first one, did you? Shame.

Seriously, my wife and I were actually quite annoyed at the end of the film. In our theater, there was a mass exodus, seemingly just before the final scene even ended. People were clamboring over us to get out. I don’t get it, this is Marvel. It was such an exodus that they turned…

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